It's Official!!

Cory's official invitation to join Team BC at the Special Olympics National Summer Games in London, Ontario next July arrived today! He will join his 3 bowling teammates and coach, with a few other athletes from other sports as Delta's first ever athletes chosen to represent British Columbia at a Special Olympics National Games.

The letter arrived while Cory was away for the day, so we decided we would pick him up and go out for dinner at a local restaurant. We previously had arranged for a server to place the envelope containing Cory's invitation inside a menu that would then be given to Cory. Here's what happened (and you'll see that Cory makes sure an envelope is completely open before removing its contents - the anticipation was killing us!!):

It's a long video, so here's the first part:

Part Two, with a brief replay of "the moment":

And Part 3:

So Cory will now have to train 3 times per week and submit his training records to his Provincial bowling coach. But that won't be a problem. He has signed up in a new bowling league every Monday beginning September 14, then wil be bowling with Special Olympics every Sunday beginning October 18. January to May, he'll be skiing up to 3 times a week (except maybe during the Olympic Games in February), and he does weight training every Friday beginning in mid-October. Throw in some biking and some Wii, and he's a pretty active athlete. And a very happy one right now too.

Still grinning an hour later:

This will work very well with Cory's ski schedule since he has only one important race this coming season, the Special Olympics Regional Qualifier scheduled for February. He successfully qualified in this event 3 years ago so it shouldn't be too difficult for him to qualify again. So concentrating a bit more on bowling to prepare for the National Games will not likely affect his ski racing development.

That's it for now, look out London, here comes Cory!!

Summer Time!

And the weather is fine, you can reach right up and touch the sky...(apologies to Mungo Jerry). And if you're under 40, you likely have no idea what I'm talking about. Too bad, you missed out on some great summertime music.

Well, it's mid-August, just about halfway through the off-season for us ski racers. Cory's enjoying a summer filled with great weather on the west coast. In fact, we had the hottest two days ever in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago.

And he's keeping in ski racing shape by biking, kayaking, and hitting the local waterslide park once a week (hey, that's a lot of steps up and down those slides in one day!).

Together with his Blue Streak colleague Mark, Cory has put in a few huge biking days. A few weeks ago, they started on the waterfront at New Westminster, followed the Central Valley Greenway into the City of Vancouver, into Stanley Park, across the Lion's Gate bridge, over to the Second Narrows bridge, back into New Westminster. A total of 81 kms! Even if you don't know Vancouver, 81 kms is a good day of biking.

Last week, they toured Richmond and put in another day of 76 kms.

And a couple of days ago, they hit the 100km mark. From White Rock to Abbotsford and back was 98kms, so they put in one more kilometre, came back and 100kms it was. Yesterday though, Cory said maybe 100kms in one day was a bit too much. Feeling the pain...

Now, when Dad is around (me that is), we do something a bit more sedate. Ocean kayaking. Find the right combination of wind, tide, and current and all you gotta do is drift along. I'll save my energy for Grouse, Cypress, and Whistler next winter.

So we've been out kayaking a few times. Cory had kayaked once or twice before so it didn't take long for him to get the hang of it. Out on the ocean, you really do have to keep aware of your bearings, since you can be far from shore in a hurry if you don't keep on eye on where you're drifting. And paddling against tide, current, and wind can get you nowhere fast - backwards fast perhaps. Skiing's easier, point the boards downhill and push!

A good friend of ours has a couple of kayaks that we can use at our leisure in Point Roberts, Washington, which is about a 10 minute drive from home. It does require a border crossing but that's usually just a 5-10 minute wait. Point Roberts is a unique place, surrounded by the ocean on 3 sides and borders Canada on the 4th side. It has more gasoline pumps per capita (population about 1300) than any other community in the U.S., since it's so easy for Canadians like us to hop across to save $8 - $10 on a tankful of gas.

The kayaks are stored at Lighthouse Park that believe it or not has a lighthouse. Though not much of a lighthouse, in the traditional sense, but a lighthouse nonetheless:





But it's a magical place with some amazing sunsets:






that get bigger and better, and wetter in this case...






now that's a gorgeous sunset:




And even amazing moonrises:





Ok back to the kayaking:


Car's unloaded, a bit of sunscreen..







Photo opp before we get going...and if you've ever tried to get into a kayak before, you'll understand why there will be no photo of me trying to do so! That's the Roberts Bank coal port and Tsawwassen ferry terminal in the background - ferry to Victoria BC.





Cory's ready...





And off he goes







Might as well get in some fishing...






Dinner? Don't think so...bullhead, all bones...back in the water it goes...







A bit of solitude for Cory...with Georgia Straight and Vancouver Island in the background:










And of course, one great thing about being on the ocean is the chance to see some marine wildlife. First some harbour porpoises...rather far off in the distance, but we don't want to harass them either so that they'll keep coming back:









Much better on video so you can hear that awesome sound when they come up for air:





And then on a different day...orcas!!...also known as killer whales:


An adult female:

This adult male turns to come right at us as it surfaces:

The female again:

Back to the male:

And then this, right place right time with my camera:

So after a show like that, time to enjoy one more sunset and head home. Hope to update again soon with a recap of Cory's story. We've been blogging now since 2007, so we'll recap as we get closer to the exciting 2009/2010 ski racing season (173 days to the 2010 Olympics).

And of course we'll know any day now whether Cory will be on Team BC at the National Games next July in London, Ontario.

Please leave a comment to tell us you were here. Just click on comments below and you don't need an account - just click on the window to comment with your name.